J. A. Burrow places the writers of the Medieval period (1100-1500) in their historical context - the four centuries between the Norman Conquest and the Renaissance - and explains not only how authors such as Chaucer, Gower, and Langland wrote, but why. He shows that Middle English literature, far from being dry and difficult for the modern reader without specialist training, is in fact more readily accessible than imagined and well worth reading.

J. A. Burrow places the writers of the Medieval period (1100-1500) in their historical context - the four centuries between the Norman Conquest and the Renaissance - and explains not only how authors such as Chaucer, Gower, and Langland wrote, but why. He shows that Middle English literature, far from being dry and difficult for the modern reader without specialist training, is in fact more readily accessible than imagined and well worth reading.